Maitre Rademaeckers

Maitre Rademaeckers was the tax collector of Aalst during the French occupation of the Austrian Netherlands during the 1740s. When King Louis XV of France called for a raise in taxes to fund the War of the Austrian Succession, Rademaeckers proposed to meet the quota by raising 20 extra shares of tax money through the proportional taxation of the department's towns by order of size. The taxes would be collected on the first day of every month, inflicting an unbearable burden upon the local townspeople. Rademaeckers soon found himself burdened by more demands to raise taxes in order to build a new road headed straight from Aalst to Brussels (which would reduce travel time by half).